Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Words, Language & Grammar

This short, opinionated audiobook addresses the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which argues that the language we speak shapes the way we perceive the world. Linguist John McWhorter argues that while this idea is mesmerizing, it is plainly wrong. It is language that reflects culture and worldview, not the other way around.

When Geppetto makes a wooden puppet of a little boy, he is astonished when the puppet comes to life! But Pinocchio dreams of being a real boy.... A magical retelling of the classic tale, read by Stephen Mangan.

On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb outside government buildings in central Oslo, killing eight people. He then proceeded to a youth camp on the island of Utøya, where he killed 69 more, most of them teenage members of Norway's governing Labour Party. In One of Us, the journalist Åsne Seierstad tells the story of this terrible day and what led up to it. What made Breivik, a gifted child from an affluent neighborhood in Oslo, become a terrorist?

A bonzer (p. 288) discussion of the strange but dinkum (p. 289) pedigree (p. 224) of the naughty (p. 202), nice (p. 212), and, sometimes, obscene (p. 217) English language. We live in a torrent of words — from radio and television, books and newspapers, and now from the internet. But, as Julian Burnside reminds us in this new edition of the bestselling Wordwatching, words are a source both of pleasure and power, and can be deployed for good or for ill.

Deathworld centers on Jason dinAlt, a professional gambler who uses his somewhat erratic psionic abilities to tip the odds in his favor. He is challenged by a man named Kerk Pyrrus (who turns out to be the ambassador from the planet Pyrrus) to turn a large amount of money into an immense sum by gambling at a government-run casino. He succeeds and survives the planetary government's desperate efforts to steal back the money.

Sara Daniel, a star European correspondent and one of the few women reporters covering Iraq, dares to venture where few have gone, in this gripping and fascinating memoir. In June of 2002, war looms and Saddam Hussein still has a brutal grip on a nation in disarray. Sara Daniel travels the length and breadth of Iraq, following the fast-evolving events and interviewing people from all walks of life and all religious and political affiliations: from the Kurds in the north to the rising new politicians in Baghdad and beyond....

Ms. Barkha Agrawal, a renowned English Educator, author and a national fame YouTuber. She has taught 100,000+ students and they have achieved remarkable success in cracking various exams, including SSC, Bank, Defence exams with top scores. Her teaching style encompasses a unique approach that makes English comprehensible and enjoyable for learners of all ages.

Gary Webb had an inborn journalistic tendency to track down corruption and expose it. For over thirty-four years, he wrote stories about corruption from county, state, and federal levels. He had an almost magnetic effect to these kinds of stories, and it was almost as if the stories found him. It was his gift, and, ultimately, it was his downfall.

Caring or careless? In this powerful and moving essay, Micheline Lee tells the story of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, a transformative social change that ran into problems. For some users it has been “the only lifeboat in the ocean,” but for others it has meant still more exclusion. Lee explains what happened, showing that the NDIS, for all its good intentions, has not understood people with disabilities well enough. While government thought the market could do its job, a caring society cannot be outsourced.

Oliver Wyman reads The Speakeasy Guide and captures the rich atmosphere and enduring cultural influence of the roaring ‘20s. While the anecdote about Audible staffers stumbling out of an anonymous casino might be in doubt, one thing’s for sure – this fun listen is the bee’s knees.

In this highly useful guide, international literary agent Jennifer Lyons leads more than 30 expert contributors in demystifying the business side of writing for aspiring authors.Whether you’re unclear on what to expect from your first book deal or just a little puzzled by your editor’s whims, The Business of Writing is the book for you. In it, Lyons empowers aspiring and experienced writers with everything they need to know about the business of selling books, from publicity to the legal and financial aspects of the trade.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was an American novelist and playwright who, in 1930, became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. The Job is one of his earliest novels. Concerning the exploits of a 1920s career woman, it is one of the first novels about feminism and is considered one of the stepping stones towards Lewis' success.

Spotlighting an extraordinary career, this autobiography reviews the author’s accomplishments working and playing alongside some of Canada’s greatest writers. These humorous chronicles relate the projects he brainstormed for writer Barry Broadfoot, how he convinced eventual Nobel Prize contender Alice Munro to keep writing short stories, his early morning phone call from a former Prime Minister, and his recollection of yanking a manuscript right out of Alistair MacLeod’s own reluctant hands....

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was an American novelist and playwright who, in 1930, became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. His last distinctive pulp novel, The Innocents, follows a longtime married couple as they vacation away from their home in New York City and contemplate starting a business.

In this intimate and eloquent meditation, the award-winning poet Carl Phillips shares lessons he has learned about what he calls an “apprenticeship to what can never fully be mastered”, through 40 years of teaching and mentoring emerging writers. He weaves together his experiences as a poet and prose writer with discussions of underexplored elements of the writing life, including ambition, stamina, silence, politics, practice, audience, and community.

No aspiring author should be without this invaluable guide to the book publishing process. Publish Your Book: Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author is a professional guide to publishing success for the new and struggling author. With insider tips, up-to-date marketing strategies, timelines, and other resources, this book offers a comprehensive tour of the world of book publishing to help authors successfully navigate the industry.

APE's thesis is powerful yet simple: filling the roles of Author, Publisher, and Entrepreneur yields results that rival traditional publishing. We call this "artisanal publishing" - that is, when writers who love their craft control the publishing process and produce high-quality books. APE is 411 minutes of step-by-step, tactical advice and practical inspiration.

What does it take to have a long writing life? Drawing on her years of writing, teaching, and practicing Zen, Natalie Goldberg shares the experiences that have opened her to new ways of being alive - experiences that point the way forward in our lives and our writing. The "great spring" of this book title refers to the great rush of energy that arrives when you think no life will ever come again - the early yellow flowering forsythia, for example.

In Highly Irregular, Arika Okrent tells the story of the many influences - from invading French armies to stubborn Flemish printers - that made our language the way it is today. Both an entertaining send-up of linguistic oddities and a deeply researched history of English, Highly Irregular is essential for anyone who has paused to wonder about our marvelous mess of a language.

Over the course of the past twenty-five years, Julia Cameron has taught thousands of artists and aspiring artists how to unblock wellsprings of creativity. And time and again she has noticed an interesting thing: Often when her students uncover their creative selves they also undergo a surprising physical transformation - invigorated by their work, they slim down. In The Writing Diet, Cameron illuminates the relationship between creativity and eating to reveal a crucial equation: Creativity can block overeating.